Question for MS/HS teachers- % IEP/504 and your time

[Anonymous]

Teachers at MS and HS-what percent of your classes are now IEP/504 students and how much time a day or week do you have to spend doing related required paperwork? If teachers with many years experience, how much of an increase from when you started?

For all the parents thinking teachers should be more available for students, I am wondering if a lot of the time teachers used to have is now taken up with IED/504 paperwork and requirements. Any truth to this? If yes, has there been a solution raised by teachers that FCPS has said no to? How can parents help to ensure students supported but also the teachers? Is what’s needed more support teachers in schools or what could help- and yes, I know FCPS will say no $ to do, but if don’t help the teachers, FCPS will continue to lose teachers and be worse for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Not in FCPS but an IEP mom. I think teachers should get additional planing time to administer IEPs. I also think if they got overtime to do IEP meetings before or after school that would not only be easier for parents but also might be better for teachers. Definitely something I would expect the unions to advocate for.

I also think schools would benefit a lot by just putting a modest amount of effort up front to write IEPs and 504s that a) actually address the issues and b) can be implemented. There is no reason to have an IEP that cannot physically be implemented. Just because parents demand something (ie written lecture notes) does not mean that schools have to agree if it is too burdensome. Inevitably these are not magic keys to access the curriculum but rather a laundry list of items.

[Anonymous]

PP- Many teachers have jobs after school or have to pick up their own kids. It’s not fair to change the terms of their contract mandating after school meetings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not in FCPS but an IEP mom. I think teachers should get additional planing time to administer IEPs. I also think if they got overtime to do IEP meetings before or after school that would not only be easier for parents but also might be better for teachers. Definitely something I would expect the unions to advocate for.

I also think schools would benefit a lot by just putting a modest amount of effort up front to write IEPs and 504s that a) actually address the issues and b) can be implemented. There is no reason to have an IEP that cannot physically be implemented. Just because parents demand something (ie written lecture notes) does not mean that schools have to agree if it is too burdensome. Inevitably these are not magic keys to access the curriculum but rather a laundry list of items.

Part of the problem is parent groups sometimes convince parents they need to demand all kinds of things in their kid’s IEP or 504 and not settle for anything less. One of my kids has a 504 with some basic accommodations. According to some parent groups I should be demanding an IEP and several things that I know are not realistic for the district to provide. But some of these groups are very dogmatic in their thinking and try to make parents feel like they aren’t doing enough if they don’t demand everything under the sun.

[Anonymous]

There’s not much paperwork with a 504. Typically at the high school level, only one teacher out of 7 attends the meeting anyway. The IEP coordinator handles all the paperwork.

[Anonymous]

I teach a HS elective so none of my classes are team taught with a special ed teacher.

one section of my level 1 class has 29 students, 18 of whom have IEPs/504s. The other section of the same class has 25 students, 10 of whom have IEPs/504s.

I am generally classed into 504/IEP meetings 2-3 times a month and these last an hour or so. I get 4-5 emails a week asking either for feedback or a teacher narrative that is included in the IEP/504 meeting. These generally take me 10-15 per student - For core classes, especially english and math, the time spent on these narratives/feedback is much longer as they have to provide work samples and give more detailed feedback.

The best thing we could do for ALL students, special ed or gen ed, is REDUCE CLASS SIZE! If we capped classes at 20-22, every student would have more access to teacher support, as well as more timely and more thorough feedback on assignments.

[Anonymous]

I have one co-taught class, so that class obviously has more students with IEPs, but my other classes have have:

Class 1= three IEPs, five 504 plans
Class 2= one IEP, three 504 plans
Class 3= zero IEPs, one 504 plan
Class 4= three IEPs, four 504 plans
Co-taught class = sixteen IEPs, four 504 plans

I spend 30-45 minutes per day on goal and accommodation documentation, and 15-60 minutes per day on making copies of teacher notes, enlarging items, and making other accommodations.

[Anonymous]

Our experience is that a large percentage of the teachers don't even read the IEP so I don't think much time is spent at all.

[Anonymous]

HS math.

It's a lot of prep work ahead of time and a ton of mental load, but not a huge time issue as the year goes on. Seating charts are huge, marking up rosters so when I'm entering grades and Larla's paper is 3 days late I know she has up to 5 days extension and I don't mark it late.

90% of accommodations are things I do for everyone. Copy of teacher notes ahead of time (these are scanned into schoology the day before class generally, paper copies are made for absent students to grab so if an IEP kid needs them they can grab them too), brain breaks (don't we all zone out when we need to?), reminders to stay on task (everyone gets these), etc.

The most challenging accommodation is usually extended time (which almost everyone has by high school, because parents want it for SATs). I *have* to give 1.5x or 2x to those students. That means finding time outside of class to meet with them (impossible), or trying to babysit them during the remediation block (chaos). My go for a while was to shrink assessments to a point where kids can complete it in 30 minutes, so double time is 60 minutes, and I give them 90 minutes so there is no excuse not to finish. I was told that's not meeting the accommodation though unless I physically collect all non extended time assessments after 45 minutes. If I let any gen ed kid have 90 minutes, I have to let any double time student have 180 minutes. That's a lot of makeup time to find when it applies to all classes.

Sometimes a single kid will take up a lot of time, like the year I had a fully blind student in my AP math course. Then I had to have everything done 2 weeks in advance to be brailed and modified for their needs. Most of the time though, it's not anything beyond what everyone gets.

Data collection forms can be tedious depending how the goals are written. When they are written well, it is short and sweet. When they are poorly written or on things that are hard to track, it can be more challenging. I have a few kids this year whose goal is attendance (easy, that's in SIS) but one in particular is asking how many minutes they are in class. That's harder, because I have to track every time they are tardy (how much?), go to the bathroom (how long?), go see a counselor, etc. E-hallpass tracks most of it, but I have to look it up and be diligent about closing passes immediately upon return vs when i have a free moment. I wish instead it was written as "Child was present for entire class without leaving the room" and I could just put yes/no vs. calculating the percent of time they were present.

Meetings are minimal. As a core teacher I attend more than most I suspect (parents don't want a PE teacher to be present as much as they want math/english), but it's rarely more than once a week. 504s typically last 30 minutes, IEPs last around an hour but if it's not contentious and I've said my piece they will often dismiss me early.

I agree the biggest thing that would help me is smaller class sizes. Everyone would win. Students would have space to move/spread out, I could get to everyone, I'd know the kids better. 25 is the magic tipping point where things become difficult to meet everyone's needs, and my smallest class this year is 29. If I had my way, core on-level classes would be capped at 20. Honors/AP can go higher (the need for remediation tends to be lower), but even they should be capped at 28.

[Anonymous]

I would love to give great praise to the teacher who outlined all of the responsibilities that they face meeting accommodations. Perhaps the community at large would realize that there’s far more to teaching than just going in, presenting a lesson and taking a few papers home to grade. It’s obvious that she cares deeply for her profession. Some of the accommodations are completely unbelievable and almost impossible to fulfill. Extended time is one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to give great praise to the teacher who outlined all of the responsibilities that they face meeting accommodations. Perhaps the community at large would realize that there’s far more to teaching than just going in, presenting a lesson and taking a few papers home to grade. It’s obvious that she cares deeply for her profession. Some of the accommodations are completely unbelievable and almost impossible to fulfill. Extended time is one of them.

But they give extended time to everyone and they don't know how to implement it and don't tell parents it won't happen